This album could have come out in 2018 or 2011 — either way, Figure’s new album Parakalein is a welcome change-up in the world of Japanese indie-pop, a corner of the music landscape that might only be bested by shoegaze in terms of consistency. Figure, though, has always introduced a little more feedback into the otherwise up-tempo drive of the style, working in tension and sometimes going for full suffocation. “Mary” offers one of the longer examples of Figure’s prowess at merging the melodic with the rough-edged. Lasting nearly six minutes, the song goes through a handful of start-stop sections that then ramp up to hooks coated in reverb, but letting a familiar melancholy creep to the center. Listen above.
